Rowan Class

Rowan Class

Rowan Class offers a naturalistic learning environment which predominantly involves informal play-based learning. Children in Rowan Class are learning to fall in love with the social world and all activities offer an irresistible opportunity to engage, providing opportunities for social communication. The main focuses for development in Rowan Class are; Social Communication, Emotional Regulation and Play.

Within the SCERTS framework in the area of Social Communication, Rowan Class are typically Social Partners, learning to use their body language, gestures and facial expressions to communicate. There are some emerging Language Partners, learning to use single words and brief phrases through speech, signs and pictures.

Within the area of Emotional Regulation, Rowan Class are at the behavioural level stage, using motor and sensory motor strategies to regulate their emotions.

The key strategies and approaches in Rowan Class include; Pairing, Learning through play, sensory gross motor, TEACCH, Attention Group and Communication Group.

Our Timetable

Sensory Movement We always start our days with lots of movement in Rowan Class. We are very lucky and have our own indoor park. We like to bounce, jump, swing, slide, rock, run, dance, balance and much more. This helps us with our attention and focus for the morning session. We need lots of physical sensory input throughout the day and we love it!

Here are some links to the songs that we use during our sensory sessions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzGRs-C8kqs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b65MoVwANq4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cxGgnL7mSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2b2bvkjRcI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgQ10jfgJUE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1MuOLT5UmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiAfKr1n8jc

Snack Time

Snack is a key time for practising our social communication. Children use different methods to request snack items from the grownups, including – objects of reference, single symbols and Subject Verb Object sentence boards. All items are visible but not accessible, encouraging the

children to socially communicate to gain access to their preferred items.

We like to listen to the sensory aquarium A useful website for messy play and tuff tray ideas is when we are having our snack, it is very calming.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdUOH3GeqxY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIrBecB746c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJjc6l6iII

Play Skills

In Rowan Class most our children are at the exploratory stage of play with some beginning to enter the functional stage of play. We have 2 sessions of play skills a week and we love getting messy!! Encouraging children to play with a variety of objects and materials and explore them in different ways is one of our main goals whilst always providing opportunities for social communication.

A useful website for messy play and tuff tray ideas is https://www.pintrest.co.uk

Sensory Relaxation Before and after lunch each day we have a sensory relaxation session, we turn off the big lights, put on a soft coloured light and listen to relaxing music. This helps us to prepare for and recover from a period where we receive a large amount of sensory input which can sometimes be overwhelming.

Some of the links of the relaxation music we use in class.

Before dinner we like to listen to and watch –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HrkXT5Bc9E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Y10BxP5Qo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-isGWR0kQ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTsFlKjEYtk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_7YUO6JOdI After dinner we like to listen to and watch – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxxqdrrpgZc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE6RYpe9IT0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXzk5i4Ofe8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9OP99GzM-A

Forest Schools We have Forest Schools every Monday afternoon.

We go over to the adventure garden and we explore, relax and play. Our favourite things to do are chilling out in the hammocks and playing in the water tray. If the weather is really bad we stay inside and create things to make the adventure garden look pretty. Again, always providing endless opportunities to practise our social communication skills.

Pintrest is great for outdoor play activities. https://www.pintrest.co.uk

Social and Sensory Time Every Tuesday morning, we go out on our social and sensory trips.

Last term we went to Bizzy Bouncers and this term we have been going to Total Adrenaline.

This gives us a chance to practise our social communication skills in a novel environment and provides us with lots ofsensory input to help our attention and interaction throughout the day. We really enjoy these trips and they are a very important part of our social and sensory development.

Comminucation Group

These sessions offer an opportunity for children to directly practise their communication targets.

Initially, children attend to an adult directed group activity.

Throughout this, children contribute by attending, taking turns and making choices, using their differentiated methods of communication including; eye contact, gesture, eye gaze, single words, combinations of words and body language.

After the adult directed activity, children are directed to a table where there are sensory materials relevant to the main display for children to investigate with.

Some of the more desirable objects are placed in containers that the children cannot access but can see; offering a further opportunity for children to practise their social communication skills. ls.

Attention Group

This is our Attention Autism session, it is conducted in 4 stages.

Stage 1 – Gaining children’s attention with ‘The Bucket’ This contains 3-4 highly engaging items that will initially attract the children’s attention.

Stage 2 – To maintain and increase attention levels. This is usually a giant picture/ display sometimes linked to our weekly theme.

Stage 3 – Turn taking and re-engaging attention. The adult demonstrates the activity and then children are chosen to come and have a go and then return to their seat.

Stage 4 – Shifting and re-engaging attention. This is an individual table top activity. We split into two groups in Rowan Class for this stage. We have the sensory group on one table who investigate with materials linked to the stage 2 activity and the keyskills group on another table that attempt to imitate an adult directed task.

Music Time We love music time in Rowan Class.

We follow the Charanga Music Scheme and we present our music sessions in 4 stages.

Stage 1 – We sayhello by singing and banging on a drum.

Stage 2 – We choose an instrument to play from the box and play along with music.

Stage 3 – We dance and try to copy actions that the grown ups do.

Stage 4 – we say goodbye by singing and shaking hands. We also like to end the session with some bubbles.

After the group session children freely explorethe instruments and listen to their favourite songs.

Some of our favourite songs – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBVqcTEC3zQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4WNrvVjiTw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNUZBHlRH4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5WLXZspD1M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frN3nvhIHUk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqZsoesa55w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D4K9oi7oBM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuI_p7a9VG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4cczzBsmZ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl5QodAFuVk

P.E. and Dressing Skills Every Friday morning, we have P.E. The skills we work on during these sessions are; exploration, imitation, rule following and play.

In addition to this we use the time before and after our P.E. sessions to work on our dressing skills.

The Magic Box

“What’s in the magic box today? Let’s have a look and take it out to play.

Will it be big or will it be small? There might be nothing there at all.”

The Magic box is our end of day activity. We present the box, sing the song and have a look at what’s inside, one object at a time. It could be anything just something that gets the children’s attention, encourages turn taking and promotes social communication.

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